Valves of an engine cylinder may be activated and deactivated from time to time to increase vehicle fuel economy and provide a desired torque. Valve operators that activate and deactivate the valves may be designed such that they cannot overcome valve spring forces when the valves are open. Therefore, the valves may have to be deactivated and activated at precise time intervals or the valves may activate or deactivate in a different engine cycle than is desired. Further, it may be desirable to deactivate the cylinders such that exhaust gases are expelled from the cylinder before the cylinder is deactivated and fresh air is inducted into the cylinder before reactivating the cylinder. However, it may be costly and difficult to timely activate and deactivate engine cylinders so that a desired engine power or torque may be provided.
The inventor herein has recognized the above-mentioned disadvantages and has developed an engine system, comprising: a camshaft saddle including a stationary groove; and a camshaft including a discontinuous groove; the camshaft fitted to the camshaft saddle, the stationary groove aligned with the discontinuous groove.
By installing a discontinuous groove in a camshaft, it may be possible to provide the technical result of timely activating and deactivating cylinder valves with reduced cost as compared to valves that are solely activated and deactivated based on timing of operating an electrically actuated valve. In particular, since the discontinuous groove rotates synchronously with the camshaft, the discontinuous groove may provide oil flow to a deactivating valve operator without having to open a valve dedicated to operating only the one valve operator. Instead, a single electrically operated valve may control two deactivating valve operators that activate and deactivate intake and exhaust valves. Consequently, the valves may be timely activated and deactivated via a single electrically operated valve.
The present description may provide several advantages. Specifically, the approach may reduce valve train complexity. Further, the approach may reduce valve system cost. Further still, the approach may reduce computational load on a controller.
The above advantages and other advantages, and features of the present description will be readily apparent from the following Detailed Description when taken alone or in connection with the accompanying drawings.
It should be understood that the summary above is provided to introduce in simplified form a selection of concepts that are further described in the detailed description. It is not meant to identify key or essential features of the claimed subject matter, the scope of which is defined uniquely by the claims that follow the detailed description. Furthermore, the claimed subject matter is not limited to implementations that solve any disadvantages noted above or in any part of this disclosure.